ABSTRACT
There is an increasing recognition that a significant number of people exposed to a traumatic experience will go on to develop severe and sometimes prolonged psychological reactions (Breslau et al. 1997). Much of the research has been into survivors of disasters (Green et al. 1990; Kenardy and Carr 2000; Lundin 2000) and the emergency service personnel involved in rescue (Alexander 1993; Violanti and Paton 1999; Robinson 2000; Mitchell and Everly 2001). However, there is an increasing interest in the impact of traumatic events on a wide range of workers exposed to traumatic experiences at work, including victims of violent attacks (Flannery 2000), accidents (Mayou 1997) and other traumatic events (Tehrani et al. 2001). It is not surprising that given the negative psychological impact of traumatic exposure, many organisations have introduced interventions designed to reduce the incidence of post-traumatic stress reactions and to speed up the process of recovery. With increasing interest in the field, the effectiveness of early interventions (Raphael and Wilson 2000; Orner and Schnyder 2003) and later treatments (Foa et al. 2000a; Wilson et al. 2001) has been reviewed.
